This chapter explores the question of nationalism as it has been discussed by the theorists of nationalism. It looks at anticolonial nationalisms and the deep xenophobia that marks them, the broad ...
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This chapter explores the question of nationalism as it has been discussed by the theorists of nationalism. It looks at anticolonial nationalisms and the deep xenophobia that marks them, the broad contours of the ideological formation called secular-nationalism in India, and the experience of South Africa. The South African case represents one of the most interesting instances of a ‘nation-building’ process that seeks to go beyond the paradigm of nationhood. The specific problem of South Africa has been the legacy of apartheid. The chapter first considers the phenomenon of nationalism through the writings of some of the leading scholars and theorists in the field, with emphasis on the experiences of large-scale dislocations that accompany modern development. It also examines how nationalist discourses are related to colonially imposed modernity and the problems that arise from this circumstance.Less

Nationalism, Democracy, and the Postcolonial World

Aditya Nigam

Published in print: 2006-01-26

This chapter explores the question of nationalism as it has been discussed by the theorists of nationalism. It looks at anticolonial nationalisms and the deep xenophobia that marks them, the broad contours of the ideological formation called secular-nationalism in India, and the experience of South Africa. The South African case represents one of the most interesting instances of a ‘nation-building’ process that seeks to go beyond the paradigm of nationhood. The specific problem of South Africa has been the legacy of apartheid. The chapter first considers the phenomenon of nationalism through the writings of some of the leading scholars and theorists in the field, with emphasis on the experiences of large-scale dislocations that accompany modern development. It also examines how nationalist discourses are related to colonially imposed modernity and the problems that arise from this circumstance.

This chapter focuses on the cartooning of anticolonial nationalism in Nigeria. It focuses on the works of Akinola Lasekan, Nigeria's pioneer political cartoonist. It suggests that Lasekan's ideology ...
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This chapter focuses on the cartooning of anticolonial nationalism in Nigeria. It focuses on the works of Akinola Lasekan, Nigeria's pioneer political cartoonist. It suggests that Lasekan's ideology closely follows that of his mentor Nnamdi Azikiwe: a blend of liberal democratic, welfarist, and socialist precepts forged by the master in the crucible of black racial protests and cultural renaissance in the U.S. of the 1920s and 1930s. It explains that Lasekan called for the total Africanization of Nigeria and that for the iconographic resources to prosecute the all-out war, he drew on a wide spectrum of sources, from the culturally indigenous to the colonial and European. It argues that though Lasekan's conventions of physiognomic representation have strong indigenous resonance, they were also common in the cartoons published in many British American newspapers of the 1930s and 1940s.Less

Cartooning Nigerian Anticolonial Nationalism

Tejumola Olaniyan

Published in print: 2002-10-28

This chapter focuses on the cartooning of anticolonial nationalism in Nigeria. It focuses on the works of Akinola Lasekan, Nigeria's pioneer political cartoonist. It suggests that Lasekan's ideology closely follows that of his mentor Nnamdi Azikiwe: a blend of liberal democratic, welfarist, and socialist precepts forged by the master in the crucible of black racial protests and cultural renaissance in the U.S. of the 1920s and 1930s. It explains that Lasekan called for the total Africanization of Nigeria and that for the iconographic resources to prosecute the all-out war, he drew on a wide spectrum of sources, from the culturally indigenous to the colonial and European. It argues that though Lasekan's conventions of physiognomic representation have strong indigenous resonance, they were also common in the cartoons published in many British American newspapers of the 1930s and 1940s.

This chapter examines the gendered nature of modernity in the case of India by tracing the trajectory of Indian women's historiography in the late twentieth century. More specifically, it explores ...
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This chapter examines the gendered nature of modernity in the case of India by tracing the trajectory of Indian women's historiography in the late twentieth century. More specifically, it explores the complex relationship between historical pasts and contemporary contexts and its implications for women's and gender history in modern India. It begins with a discussion of how the writing of Indian women's history has been intertwined with both British colonialism and anticolonial nationalism. It then considers the consequences of nationalism and national liberation movements for the field of women's history and how colonial and anticolonial forces took up the “woman question.” It also looks at the historiography of women and gender in modern India as a means to address women's oppression as well as colonial and postcolonial modernity.Less

Women’s and Gender History in Modern India : Researching the Past, Reflecting on the Present

Mytheli Sreenivas

Published in print: 2013-01-07

This chapter examines the gendered nature of modernity in the case of India by tracing the trajectory of Indian women's historiography in the late twentieth century. More specifically, it explores the complex relationship between historical pasts and contemporary contexts and its implications for women's and gender history in modern India. It begins with a discussion of how the writing of Indian women's history has been intertwined with both British colonialism and anticolonial nationalism. It then considers the consequences of nationalism and national liberation movements for the field of women's history and how colonial and anticolonial forces took up the “woman question.” It also looks at the historiography of women and gender in modern India as a means to address women's oppression as well as colonial and postcolonial modernity.

This book is the first ever English-language study of Vietnam's emerging political press and its resistance to colonialism. Published in the decade that preceded the Communist Party's founding, it ...
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This book is the first ever English-language study of Vietnam's emerging political press and its resistance to colonialism. Published in the decade that preceded the Communist Party's founding, it established a space for public, political contestation that fundamentally changed Vietnamese attitudes and the outlook of Southeast Asia. It directly links Saigon's colonial urbanization to the creation of new modes of individual and collective political agency. To better justify their presence, French colonialists implemented a peculiar brand of republican imperialism to encourage the development of a highly controlled print capitalism. Yet the Vietnamese made clever use of this new form of political expression, subverting colonial discourse and putting French rulers on the defensive, while simultaneously stoking Vietnamese aspirations for autonomy. The book specifically considers the work of Western-educated Vietnamese journalists who, in their legal writings, called attention to the politics of French rule. It rejects the notion that communist and nationalist ideologies changed the minds of “alienated” Vietnamese during this period. Rather, it credits colonial urban modernity with shaping the Vietnamese activist-journalist and the role of the French, even at their most coercive, along with the modern public Vietnamese intellectual and his responsibility toward the group. Countering common research on anticolonial nationalism and its assumptions of ethno-cultural homogeneity, the book follows the merging of French republican and anarchist traditions with neo-Confucian Vietnamese behavior, giving rise to modern Vietnamese public activism, its autonomy, and its contradictory aspirations.Less

The Birth of Vietnamese Political Journalism : Saigon, 1916-1930

Philippe Peycam

Published in print: 2012-05-01

This book is the first ever English-language study of Vietnam's emerging political press and its resistance to colonialism. Published in the decade that preceded the Communist Party's founding, it established a space for public, political contestation that fundamentally changed Vietnamese attitudes and the outlook of Southeast Asia. It directly links Saigon's colonial urbanization to the creation of new modes of individual and collective political agency. To better justify their presence, French colonialists implemented a peculiar brand of republican imperialism to encourage the development of a highly controlled print capitalism. Yet the Vietnamese made clever use of this new form of political expression, subverting colonial discourse and putting French rulers on the defensive, while simultaneously stoking Vietnamese aspirations for autonomy. The book specifically considers the work of Western-educated Vietnamese journalists who, in their legal writings, called attention to the politics of French rule. It rejects the notion that communist and nationalist ideologies changed the minds of “alienated” Vietnamese during this period. Rather, it credits colonial urban modernity with shaping the Vietnamese activist-journalist and the role of the French, even at their most coercive, along with the modern public Vietnamese intellectual and his responsibility toward the group. Countering common research on anticolonial nationalism and its assumptions of ethno-cultural homogeneity, the book follows the merging of French republican and anarchist traditions with neo-Confucian Vietnamese behavior, giving rise to modern Vietnamese public activism, its autonomy, and its contradictory aspirations.